Bus safety discussed at meeting

Tuesday

Oct 29, 2013 at 8:28 AMOct 29, 2013 at 8:28 AM

By Andy Barrandabarrand@hillsdale.net

PITTSFORD — The Pittsford Board of Education took the time to learn about bus safety during a recent meeting.To get his point across Shawn Miller, transportation director for the district, took the board and those in attendance at the meeting outside and did his presentation inside one of the corporation's buses."Our drivers do a flawless job," Miller said. "They have continued to do a great job over the years."During his presentation Miller discussed the importance of the drivers building a relationship with each of the students.The school system has nine full-time drivers and two on-call drivers. By the end of the year they will have driven over 100,000 miles and made some 135,000 stops. On a daily basis the drivers log some 700 miles.Miller stressed the importance of his drivers going through 17 important steps before each stop on their route.Being relatively new to the position, Miller said he looks to the transportation directors at Hillsdale and Jonesville and the jobs they do."They are just awesome at what they do," he said.Superintendent Andy Shaw said on the State Count Day the school system had lost 27 students.During the 2013-14 budgeting process the board approved a zero student increase or decrease in case a decline in enrollment happened. The school system has built a fund balance over the years to help with declining enrollments and other unforeseen circumstances.The elementary school will be starting a volunteer program to help its students in the areas of math, reading and writing. The initiative came about after the September meeting when it was presented by a member of the audience.There will be an informational meeting for interested volunteers at 6 p.m. Nov. 5 in the cafeteria.A new fence was recently installed around the elementary school playground and brush was cleaned up around the area. The outside concession stand also received a no violations recommendation from the health department.Bus driver TJ Klein's resignation was approved.